Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (c), every person who sells, furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away any alcoholic beverage to any person under 21 years of age is guilty of a misdemeanor.

He furnished. He gave. Five times.

Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (2) or (3), or Section 25667, any person who violates this section shall be punished by a fine of two hundred fifty dollars ($250), no part of which shall be suspended, or the person shall be required to perform not less than 24 hours or more than 32 hours of community service during hours when the person is not employed and is not attending school, or a combination of a fine and community service as determined by the court. A second or subsequent violation of subdivision (b), where prosecution of the previous violation was not barred pursuant to Section 25667, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500), or the person shall be required to perform not less than 36 hours or more than 48 hours of community service during hours when the person is not employed and is not attending school, or a combination of a fine and community service as determined by the court. It is the intent of the Legislature that the community service requirements prescribed in this section require service at an alcohol or drug treatment program or facility or at a county coroner's office, if available, in the area where the violation occurred or where the person resides.

Now, five bottles of champagne. I make that five offences in total. If justice is to be served, Simon Cowell should be sluicing down an awful lot of coroner's slabs in the near future, right?

Friday, September 07, 2012

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is opening a national tour for an exhibit about pioneering women in rock 'n' roll, tracing the evolution of women artists and their impact on music. It opens Friday at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Now, I'm sure it's an interesting exhibition, but... GaGa? Pioneering? As we've seen before on No Rock, she wasn't even the first pop star to use meat as a dress.

The exhibition sounds largely well-chosen:

More than 250 artifacts represent 70 women who were "engines of change and creativity," she said, each helping to redefine who could make rock 'n' roll. It features items from Cher, the B-52s, Donna Summer, Stevie Nicks, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna's provocative outfit from her "Blonde Ambition" tour. Other items date back to jazz singer Billie Holiday, first blues recording artists Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and country music trailblazer Mother Maybelle Carter.

I think you'd struggle to argue that GaGa is pushing back any boundaries, although you'd not be able to deny she's taken full advantage of victories won before she started to sell records.

"I'm a servant. I'm just here to serve the people," Chuck D told Spinner after the show. "Hip-hop is like my military."

The man who famously called rap music "the black CNN" says that artists are obliged to say something meaningful in their lyrics, and that too many MCs fall short of that mark.

"You have to say something in your lyrics," he says. "Sure, you can make it entertaining, and it should be entertaining. But you have to be saying something."

It gets worse for American rappers, as he reckons they're not just falling short of their forebears, but they're also being shown up by their neighbours:

"There are a lot of Canadian artists," he says. "K-os, K'naan, those are guys who put a lot of thought into representing their cultures and where they're from. In the United States, we have artists like Brother Ali and Saigon, so there are some."

But mostly, Canadian (or Somali-Canadian, in the case of K'naan) are showing up Americans.

Asked for a comment, American rap was too busy designing perfume bottles to come to the door, but American rap's mother said she expects American rap would accuse Mr D of being an "h-eight-ar", and would offer Mr D the chance to suck his penis. As she closed the door, she sighed and muttered "he was such a lovely child, too."

It's less a surprise that they still do the VMAs, as that there's an MTV any more. Do they even show pop videos on the channel any more? Aren't the categories impossible to judge because you'd ask an MTV viewer what they think of a video, and they'll just go "who... is... video... is... it... Snooki's... baby?"

You might not be familiar with Skyscraper, the song with the messageiest message of the year. Here's the chorus:

You can take everything I have
You can break everything I am
Like I'm made of glass
Like I'm made of paper
Go on and try to tear me down
I will be rising from the ground
Like a skyscraper
Like a skyscraper

In case you're having trouble working out the message for which this song won, it was an email sent from a record label going "that Katy Perry piss-weak firework song is being eaten up like a cinnamon bagel; does anyone else have any vaguely uplifting songs that would be laughed out the Redemption Hymnal?"

You'll notice One Direction picked up prizes, even beating off Carly Rae Jespen - that's kind of the equivalent of lead beating oxygen in the best gas awards.

What was the highlight of the Video Music Awards? Apparently someone showing a trailer for a movie. The whole thing is now so ill-judged attendees got a goodybag. It was just the bag, with two eyeholes, so they could slip out of the venue without being identified.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

The record is described as "nasal, bluesy folk music" by Manuel Vasquez, 26, co-owner of the Beauty Is Pain boutique and the person responsible for the release.

Why is Manuel doing this?

Vasquez, who was not alive when the "Manson family" terrorized Southern California in the late 1960s with its "Helter Skelter" killing spree, said he wanted to produce the album because he believes Manson’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial was violated.

"I wouldn’t say [he's] innocent, but he was denied his constitutional rights in court," Vasquez said. "I wanted to raise awareness of that."

I suppose that's an honourable aim. So the album is being sold at cost, is it, because this is about raising awareness?

So far, Vasquez has sold a "couple hundred" copies of the vinyl recording, which retails for $18 and includes never-before-heard tracks of Manson playing guitar.

Eighteen bucks a throw? But most of that will be going to Manson, right?

Manson, incarcerated at Cochran State Prison, does not get a cut of any profits from the record.

I think anyone who cares is well aware of Manson's defence situation during his trial, so it's questionable if Vasquez is really raising any awareness. He is raising thousands of dollars, though. But I'm sure that isn't the point, right?

His story starts off brilliantly: hits as a singer, hits as a songwriter. But then things changed for the worse in the early 70s. South was crushed by his success, as the LA Times explains:

"The Grammy Awards are a very nice gesture by the record industry, but they can really mess up your head," South told Times rock critic Robert Hilburn in 1970, months after he accepted the honors for "Games People Play."

"The Grammy is a little like a crown. After you win it, you feel like you have to defend it. In a sense, I froze. I found it hard to go back in to the recording studio because I was afraid the next song wouldn't be perfect."

He then rolled through drug problems and divorce, and stalled comebacks. But he had his song credits to nourish him. Luckily, he was coverable in lots of ways:

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

The band's debut album 'An Awesome Wave' is currently the even money favourite to win the yearly £20,000 prize. A representative from the high street bookies told NME:

The four-piece have brought something different and innovative to the party which punters have latched onto. It will be a huge upset if anyone else picks up this year's Mercury Prize and it won't be long before Alt-J are considered as the 'new Radiohead'.

Really? Ladbrokes doing music criticism? Are we to expect HMV to start telling us about fetlocks and the like?

What does "it won't be long before Alt-J are considered as the new Radiohead" mean anyway? Why, if they're going to be the new Radiohead, are they not already being considered the new Radiohead? Do they have to complete a slightly stuttery start to win that title?

Or are they set to be the new Radiohead in the 'never actually winning the Mercury Prize' sense? But that can't be the case, because the man from the bookies says they're going to win.

Boris Johnson won politician of the year, and there were prizes for both Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow. Tom Jones also got one, I think because 'spinning about on a chair' was a surprising addition to the prizes this year. Lana Del Ray took the token woman prize.

James Corden picked up a prize, which funnily enough is well-deserved this time round; sort-of undermined by all the times he's been given GQ Awards in the past for little more than being a face on the scene. Adding to the watery nature of the prize, he was being lauded not for his acting, but an "editor's special", which sounds more like a money-off voucher for a cheap suit.

Still, it was worth Gordon being there as he could bring his star-spotting skills to the event.

Times editor en route to #GQMoty - just saw him get into chauffeur driven Bentley. How the other half live. Circulation must be up.

Monday, September 03, 2012

I think the title of this feature has made it clear where we'd be going to end up, but first...

We've brought you many songs that Dionne Warwick had recorded - often before anyone else - and so it seems fitting to actually post one of her versions of a Hal David song as we wind towards the end of this tribute to Hal David's life and work.

But you know what? Hal David's words didn't just work in English. Here's Warwick's German version of Walk On By, Geh Vorbei, recorded for a simultaneous release:

But, let's end with the obvious one: Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa, performed by Gene Pitney on a coach. Some excellent cameraman-in-luggae-rack angles are ahead:

So that concludes a twenty-four, twenty-four song, twenty-four artist tribute to the astonishing lyrical work of Hal David. I don't think there's many lyricists who would be covered by such an array of acts, with none of them fumbling an attempt at postmodernist irony or arched-eyebrow distance. There's a lot of lyricists, truth be told, you'd struggle to assemble twenty-four songs worth hearing from.

Hal David worked with John Barry for the theme tune to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It then got reworked all over me by My Bloody Valentine. This appeared on an album Peace Together, a 1993 attempt to solve the Troubles in Ireland through the power of indie guitar music. It wasn't all Bond covers - it included Curve doing Ian Dury and Therapy? having a go at being the Police. But the Valentines doing Bond was something of a highlight.

Altogether now: "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to disappear for twenty years burning through Alan McGee's money."

This was originally supposed to be a message to Martha, but Dionne Warwick wanted to record it, so Hal David reluctantly changed the name.

Might have been better to leave it as Martha, as it would have saved the song's premature death by GOP-attempt-at-humour when George Bush senior tried to build a joke about it relating to Michael Dukakis. I suspect he only fell back on it after having four speechwriters spend three days trying to make something out of Duke Of Earl sounding a bit like Dukakis.

This version, by the way, is the Marvelettes cover, made all the better by their never having run for high office since their 1988 Midterm bid to represent Kansas in the House.

Miley, 19, was seen in Hollywood with dyed, partly-shaved hair and multiple ear studs.

Ear studs. More than one earring is now "multiple piercings".

How low is the bar being set to be a punk these days - a couple of ear studs and dyed hair? That's it? I'm not saying that she has to wait until her first self-released CD-R gets a lukewarm review in Maximum Rock & Roll, but that look says more 'edgy as viewed from Next Top Model' than 'punk'.

You might be wondering didn't The Sun already run pictures of this 'new' look? Er, yes: back on the 13th of August, which means today's story isn't even 'young woman gets new haircut'; it's 'young woman still has haircut we told you about over a fortnight ago'.

But what does all this mean?

It’s far removed from her old wholesome image — in fact it’s Miles away.

The Gals And Pals were a mid-60s Swedish vocal group. Most of the stuff they did was in Swedish, but when they wanted to work in the English language, it was most commonly Hal David's words that they reached for.

The Dionne Warwick version of this was originally thrown away as a demo of the track. Jerry Butler and The Walker Brothers got to have a run at the charts with it before Dionne was allowed to stick her version out. And then later, much later, Neil Hannon slipped on a lounge suit and did his own Divine Comedy cover. It turned up on a Short Album About Love, but not any version you can get any more.

This is from the opening credits of My Best Friend's Wedding. Oh, but you've probably spotted that already. It's by Ani DiFranco, which you might also have spotted.

Wikipedia suggests that this pairing was responsible for the resurgence in popularity of the Bacharach and David catalogue, which gets a well-deserved "by whom" tag. It should probably also get a "when were they not popular?" tag, too.

Hello, if you're just joining us - as a tribute to Hal David, we're posting a song every hour for 24 hours. There'll be a full listing of all 24 songs at the end of it, but obviously this is a pre-recorded entry so the overnight tracks won't listed in full until we get up in the morning. Pop back every hour, though, if you're around as we've still got some great stuff lined up. Honestly.

Anyway, as we move through the night, we've avoided the number two cover version of I'll Never Fall In Love Again by Deacon Blue - that's "number two" as in where it reached in the charts, and not as... oh, hang on. Instead, we've chosen this sublime reading by Emmylou Harris - one that appears to be out of print at the moment.

There's a little pre-roll on this one. Or post-pre-roll, as it carries an advert as well. Clearly more from the bit of Frankie Goes To Hollywood that spent time shopping for suits. This version was on the original 3rd side (the T side) of Welcome To The Pleasuredome, but seems to have been dropped for subsequent re-releases.

UODATE: Originally, I'd said "(Young people: Bomb The Bass were led by Mark Moore, who was pretty much Professor Green dressed by Bet Lynch.)" But as James points out in the comments, I'd muddled up my Simenon and Moore. Consider the error regretted.

Another one where the cover I'd hoped to find - Shirley Bassey belting it out - isn't turning up online, so let's go with the cover version that made the song famous. This is Fifth Dimension doing it on Ed Sullivan.

You only ever hear the Flying Lizards' cover version of Money, don't you? And even then, usually just in a splat dropped over a magazine show report about something to do with money when a researcher thinks Pink Floyd is too obvious. Here they are having a go at Hal David's lyrics instead.

Possibly the only song in history to have had "shh... spoilers" yelled at it; it wasn't part of the film, but told the plot of the movie; the result was that Gene Pitney was asked to hold back his single release until after the movie had left the cinemas. James Taylor's cover version, mercifully, wasn't required to use DVD region technology to protect the film.

Apparently, this Naked Eyes version of There's Always Something There To Remind Me was huge in the US. Or at least huger than it was in the UK, where it wasn't huge at all. Perhaps the biggest excitement of this video is the sight of one of those Today Try The Daily Mail boards which hung around outside newsagents for years. Perhaps seeing this video on MTV sowed the subconscious seeds for the Mail Online success years later...

For a while, Alfie, the theme song, was probably a bigger success than the movie. The cover versions have certainly been better than the remake of the movie. Sadly, the internet appears to lack an easily-accessible version of David McCallum's version of the song, so instead here's Everything But The Girl having a crack at it. Yes, there's the words scrawled in an ugly font, but at least it's not Jude Law's face.

There's a parody version of this by Spongebob Squarepants, but let's go with a faithful rendering by the straight-faced self-proclaimed World's Greatest Singer Rouvaun, who took an astonishing journey from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir to belting out showtunes in Vegas. He's more or less forgotten now, which makes his self-billing have something Ozymadias-like about it.

Alexandra Burke was supposed to play Brighton Pride yesterday; however, she didn't show up, issuing a statement instead:

“Brighton Pride, I am so sorry to disappoint. I'm really disappointed too. I wasn't taking a fee for the gig.

"I really wanted to perform for you all, however the promoter did not meet the production or technical requirements needed to make the show work.

“It was sadly out of my hands.”

Pride organisers issued a pithy statement which basically said 'nobody else seemed to have a problem making their show work':

“Pride Brighton & Hove would like to thank Fatboy Slim, the Freemasons and all of the performers who waived their fees to perform at Preston Park for their support of Pride Brighton & Hove 2012 and the LGBT community at large.”

Anyone who had eyes would probably be best served by looking away from the screen, but it's worth hearing Kim Wilde's version of this. Especially if you're still assuming from View From A Bridge that Wilde wasn't all that much as a vocalist.

One of Hal David's collaborations with Albert Hammond, here rendered in rough-with-the-smooth pairing of Willie Nelson in a pair of shorts he stole from a Hooters waitress and Julio Inglesias at Farm Aid II.

It's a shame that the death of Hal David got such strange treatment from BBC News late last night - a newsreader who clearly hadn't come across the name Bacharach before, and wasn't going to make any attempt to familiarise himself with it between the times when he was called upon to say it; and one of the most extraordinary Gambaccini-as-angel-of-death sequences yet, where the Gambo was gasping for breath during the call, as if he'd been racing to get to the phone before Mike Read turned up to dominate the obituaries.

Given that David was good with words, perhaps we should let him speak for himself? To which end, over the next twenty-four hours, twenty-four songs for which he wrote the lyrics.